This invention discloses an apparatus and method of reducing or eliminating the habit of tobacco smoking.
When nicotine is obtained from tobacco, as by chewing, sniffing, or smoking, the amount of nicotine absorbed into the body generally does not build up to a harmful dose, but produces certain pleasurable effects. These effects frequently lead to habitual use of tobacco.
One of the most common means of ingesting nicotine is by smoking tobacco. When the tobacco in a conventional cigarette is ignited, the combustion of the processed tobacco leaves, within the cigarette, releases nicotine vapor. As the user sucks or inhales air through the tobacco, the nicotine vapor is drawn through the cigarette and into the user's mouth and lungs.
The relative mildness of a tobacco cigarette, as compared to a pipe or cigar, permits a user to draw the smoke from the burning cigarette directly into the lungs. The nicotine vapor in the tobacco smoke is rapidly assimilated into the bloodstream, from the lungs, so that the effects of the nicotine are quickly felt.
Smoking of tobacco is known to be harmful in many ways. Of primary concern are the serious health hazards resulting from smoking combustible tobacco. Although the nicotine in tobacco is not believed to cause permanent harm to the human body, many of the other components in tobacco smoke are known to be unhealthful. Some of these components are known carcinogens. A table which lists some of the harmful components in tobacco smoke is found in "Tobacco and Tobacco Smoke: Studies in Experimental Carcinogenesis", by Ernest L. Wynder and Dietrich Hoffman of the Slaon-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research (1967), pages 496-501. The latter publication is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Furthermore, smoking of combustible tobacco is a fire hazard. Burning cigarettes, which are carelessly discarded, have caused many fires, both within buildings and in natural environments. Moreover, smoking causes substantial economic losses, including significant damage to business and personal property resulting from burns in clothing, carpeting, furniture, etc., caused by stray ashes from cigarettes. Tobacco smoking is also annoying and harmful to non-smokers exposed to the smoke.
Because of the undesirable effects of tobacco smoking, many attempts have been made to provide acceptable substitutes for smoking, or to eliminate or reduce its harmful effects. Tobacco concentrates, for example, have been processed into tablets which may be sucked or chewed in the mouth of the user, the nicotine being absorbed into the user's body through the lining of the mouth.
Another proposed substitute for smoking combustible tobacco has been to heat tobacco without burning it. Processed tobacco releases nicotine vapor when it is heated to a temperature lower than its ignition point. Thus, a smoker might draw air through such heated tobacco, and obtain the desired nicotine, but without also ingesting the more harmful products of tobacco combustion. However, the source of heat in such devices has generally been a second, isolated portion of tobacco, which is burned conventionally. Although the burning tobacco is isolated from the tobacco which is not burned, the by-products of the burning tobacco are still released into the air, causing some of the same health risks as conventional smoking. Also, whenever tobacco is burned, the fire hazard is always present.
In another alternative device of the prior art, tobacco is heated by various pyrophorous materials, mixed with the tobacco. Such materials react with oxygen to produce sufficient heat to cause the tobacco to release nicotine vapor. With this device, however, the by-products of the reaction, which occurs within the tobacco mix, will also tend to be inhaled through the device, by the user. Such devices may therefore harm the health of the user. Moreover, these devices tend to be relatively complex and expensive to manufacture.
Other smoking substitutes have been developed, including devices containing materials which simulate the taste and aroma of tobacco, or which release additional aromatic vapors. In one such device, such materials are micro-encapsulated within a cigarette-like structure. The desired vapors are released by squeezing or crushing the device.
The present invention is a device which is easy to use, easy to manufacture, and which is not a health or fire hazard to the user, or to persons in the environment. The invention reduces or eliminates the user's craving for nicotine, even among the most habituated smokers.